Many anti-cancer drugs have the unfortunate side-effect of depressing the body鈥檚 immune system. So it makes sense that one class of these drugs is being investigated as a way of tackling autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. These are triggered when the immune system鈥檚 T-cells go into overdrive and attack the body鈥檚 own cells.
Wayne Hancock and colleagues at the Children鈥檚 Hospital of Philadelphia have now discovered that histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors 鈥� drugs approved for treating cancers like lymphomas 鈥� stimulate a specific class of immune cells called regulatory T-cells. These control the activity of other immune cells, including rogue T-cells. In tests on mice, HDAC inhibitors suppressed inflammatory bowel disease and prevented rejection of heart and pancreatic grafts (Nature Medicine, ).
Hancock believes the drugs do this by boosting both the number of regulatory T-cells and the amount of Foxp3, a messaging molecule they produce. This surfeit of Foxp3 in turn suppresses the immune response of T-cells.
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